ANA 011
IMPRESSIONS ON PADEREWSKI
To say about Krzysztof Herdzin that he is a versatile musician and a titan of work is to say nothing. This pianist, composer, arranger, conductor and music producer also feels at home in jazz (he played in the bands of Jan Ptaszyn Wróblewski and Zbigniew Namysłowski, he is a band leader himself), pop music (he collaborated with, among others, Anna Maria Jopek, Maryla Rodowicz and Edyta Geppert), contemporary music (for which he was nominated to Fryderyk award many times), film and theatre. In short, he has to know something about the audience's needs that others don't. It turns out that he also knows something about the compositions of Ignacy Jan Paderewski - he heard in them an excellent starting point for jazz reinterpretation and bold improvisations. Keeping faithful to the spirit of the originals - including the famous Minuet in G major - Herdzin not only gives a display of pianistic virtuosity but also looks for a third way for the composition, between the noble wedge of classical music and the spontaneity and humour typical for jazz. This is not a studio recording, but a live one - sounds at this temperature are never recorded in a laboratory.
1. Minuet in G major (Op. 14 No. 1)
2. Legend in A flat major (Op. 16 No. 1)
3. Theme from Polish Fantasy in G sharp minor (Op. 19)
4. Nocturne in B flat major (Op. 16 No. 4)
5. Theme from the 3rd movement of Piano Concerto in A minor (Op. 17)